Babysitting and random thoughts

I babysat Aubree last night and we made cupcakes and played at the playground and she took a bath and we watched a show (that’s what she calls t.v.). She has to be the best five-year old in the world. Last night was the first time since her mom died that I had waves of grief hit me as we went through the evening. She saw a boy fall off a bed in one of those funny video shows – you know she only watches television in 3-minute bursts of interest – and she asked me why he fell out of bed. I said he was asleep close to the edge of the bed. She told me her mommy had an asthma attack and fell out of bed. What could I say? I told her that I remembered and that I was there that day. She said she knew I was at her house that morning. But she was at the neighbor’s house by the time I got there. Oh, golly, how did I get onto this topic? I do get asked a lot how she is doing and I would say she is really improving. -30-

Bryan was watching a movie downstairs last night and of course it was turned up loud and he had the surround sound on. Aubree wanted to be sure the noise was coming from the movie rather than from outside, so we invaded Poland, so to speak. He was watching the Transformers movie. I’m so awful at watching movies anymore. I don’t like to think of sitting around doing nothing for hours at a time. Usually when I watch a movie, I have a book or a crossword puzzle in my hand. This drives him NUTS, so that makes it fun, too.

We did actually go to the movies last Friday with friends. We went to see Expelled by Ben Stein. It was fabulous. It’s very well done and he lets both sides of the issue of scientific exploration and Darwinism speak for themselves. In my opinion, it is perhaps the best journalism since Edward R. Murrow allowed Joe McCarthy to hang himself on television. Um, not that I actually was around when it originally aired. Let's get that straight.

Tonight is the last night for kid’s night at church so my Wednesdays will be free the rest of the summer. I’ve spent the last four months in the 4th and 5th grade boys class. What an experience that has been. When I volunteered, they put me in there because the teacher, Steve, was alone. I can’t imagine being alone with that many boys. The majority of them are Liberian, so if you don’t understand what they’re saying things can get a little out of hand. I understand much of it now, but not always everything and they know it. When they deepen the accent, I know they're trying to hide something. Don’t suppose the Liberian boys are always the trouble makers, either. Heh.

Rain/storms never really materialized here in Des Moines and we aren’t supposed to see rain again until Saturday. Tomorrow our whole department is going to the Iowa Cubs game to eat, drink and be obnoxious.

I’m working on (this means “still thinking about doing”) putting photos up, maybe on Flickr or MySpace. We certainly have plenty to choose from! Today I will work on adding some links to web sites that make me laugh.